


A Tangled Web

by kadzubar



Category: Free!
Genre: Humor, M/M, there was a sale on idiot balls, unplanned SouMako
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-03
Updated: 2019-01-07
Packaged: 2019-08-17 03:26:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 12,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16508489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kadzubar/pseuds/kadzubar
Summary: In which Haru tries to stop Rin from going down the wrong path, Rin slowly dissolves into a puddle of crazy and Sousuke and Makoto are terrible liars.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Started this to celebrate the announcement of season 3... it's sad how incredibly lazy I am.
> 
> Takes place some time after Eternal Summer.

The problem with Haru, Rin decided, was every god damned thing. He was maddeningly uninterested in almost everything and yet could be argumentative and competitive at the most idiotic of times, he was ridiculously stubborn, he only ever ate mackerel, he had a freakish love of water that led to him stripping like a god damned flasher at every opportunity, and his stupid, stupid beautiful face made Rin want to punch himself every time he saw him just to stop from jumping him. But the worst, the absolute worst thing about Haru was that he apparently had no idea what he was doing to Rin every time he looked at Rin with those gorgeous melting blue eyes and spoke to him in that sexy, sexy monotone- Rin punched himself in the face.

The problem with Rin, Sousuke decided as he watched his roommate roll around on the floor clutching his face, was that he was crazy. He grabbed his phone and ducked out of the room in case it was catching.

The problem with Makoto, Haru decided, was that sometimes he could be annoyingly persistent. Over the years, Haru had learned that when Makoto really insisted on something he wouldn’t stop until Haru did it, and so Haru found himself at the sports store sorting through racks of jammers. He wasn’t quite as annoyed about this as he could have been, it helped that he had been thinking of getting a new pair anyway. He was reaching for a promising looking pair with purple stripes when he noticed a familiar hand reaching for the same pair.

The problem with Sousuke, Rin thought morosely, as he flipped through the racks was that he was an annoying bastard that wouldn’t let a man roll around on the floor in peace. Rin didn’t even know why he was here looking at jammers in the first place. He didn’t even wear jammers. He knew exactly why he was looking at jammers, it was the exact same reason he was reaching for the black pair with purple stripes and hallucinating Haru’s hand reaching for the same pair. God, he was so messed up! He’d probably start hallucinating Haru’s voice next. Yup, there it was calling him Rin in that stupid sexy monotone. Hallucinatory Haru reached out and grabbed Rin by the arm, “Rin!”

Rin snapped his eyes away from the jammers and found himself staring into gorgeous glowing blue orb-, instinctively Rin tried to punch himself in the face again but Apparently-Real-Haru had a firm grip on his arm.

“Rin,” Haru said again. He looked at Rin in concern, “what happened to your face?”

Before Rin could reply, Sousuke chimed in from behind Rin in what Haru felt to be an inappropriately amused tone, “He lost a fight with a fist.”

Haru frowned, “you were in a fight?”

Rin whipped his head around to glare at Sousuke, “I did not!”

He turned back to Haru, avoiding his eyes, “I wasn’t! it wasn’t like that… I mean... well,” he trailed off awkwardly and made a feeble attempt to pull his arm out of Haru’s grasp. Haru tightened his grip instinctively.

“Haru,” Makoto popped up from behind Sousuke, Haru blinked in surprise. He hadn’t realized quite how good Makoto was at hiding behind people if he could completely hide his considerable bulk behind Sousuke. Either that or he hadn’t realized quite how large Sousuke was, for some reason, the thought made him tighten his grip on Rin’s arm.

Makoto was chatting to Rin and Sousuke, “Since we’re all here, why don’t we go get a drink?” he said a bit too cheerfully.

Haru narrowed his eyes, Makoto was a terrible actor and he was obviously up to something, and judging by the look he was throwing Sousuke, Sousuke was in on it. Inexplicably, Rin didn’t seem to have noticed, but then again, he was acting strange too.

“Uh listen, I uh gotta take a leak but I’ll join you guys in a bit, yeah,” Rin said nervously, shifting his weight awkwardly.

Sousuke smirked at him, “sure Rin, we’ll be right over there.” He jerked his thumb at a nearby café.

Rin scowled at him and made another attempt to take back his arm. This time Haru reluctantly let him go. Apparently, there was something going and it didn’t seem like Rin wanted to let him in on it.

 

 

The minute they settled into the booth at the back of the cafe Haru glared at the co-conspirators, “What’s going on?” he asked, directing his question at the weak link.

Makoto laughed nervously, “What are you talking about Haru? There’s nothing going on.”

Haru almost snorted, “don’t lie Makoto, I know you two are up to something. Does it have something to do with Rin? Is he in trouble? Is that why he got into a fight?” he looked sharply at Sousuke.

“What? No!” Makoto began but Sousuke interrupted him. “Yes, ok we admit it. It is Rin.” Makoto fell silent but he shot Sousuke a nervous glance.

“I don’t know how and he won’t tell me, but it seems like he’s gotten involved with some kinda gang. They keep coming to look for him and every time he comes back he’s hurt.”

Makoto widened his eyes in surprise and alarm. Apparently, Sousuke hadn’t told him that. “I’ve tried to get him to stop seeing them but he won’t listen to me. I thought maybe if he bumped into you he’d snap out of it so I got Makoto to help out.”

Haru frowned, this didn’t sound like Rin, but he remembered the bruise on Rin’s cheek and he also remembered how angry and bitter he’d been when he’d come back from Australia. Had something happened to make him go back to that?

Sousuke was still talking, “And now that it’s the holidays and the dorms are practically empty I’m worried that those guys will come by even more frequently. Since you know now, I was thinking maybe you could invite him over to your place to stay and keep him away from them.”

Haru frowned, “But if they’re willing to go to the dorms what’s to stop them from coming to my place?”

“Yeah about that, it seems like Rin doesn’t want you guys to know what he’s doing, didn’t you notice how nervous he was when you asked him about his face? I think if he stays with you, he’d probably try to keep them away from you.”

Rin had seemed oddly reticent about answering his question, so maybe Sousuke was right. Haru considered it; he didn’t mind spending time with his friends but he also preferred living alone, it allowed him to recharge the same way water did. Even staying over at Makoto’s occasionally left him feeling drained, but this was Rin and he needed help. And even if he wasn’t asking for it, Haru was going to give it to him anyway.

Haru set his jaw, “Alright I’ll do it.”

Sousuke grinned, “Great now we just gotta get Rin to agree to it.”

 

 

Rin splashed his face with water and glared at himself in the mirror. He’d avoided punching himself in the face again so that Haru wouldn’t think he’d turned into some kind of maniac that got into fights the minute Haru’s back was turned, but he seriously needed to get his reactions under control if he wanted to be able to act even a little bit normal in front of Haru.

“Ok, listen. You’re just friends, ok? He obviously doesn’t see you like that.” He could still feel the warmth on his arm from where Haru had been holding it.

“And he didn’t let go”, a small voice whispered in his head.

“Shut your face Matsuoka, he was obviously just surprised. Don’t try to make something out of it.”

“But he held on for ages.”

“I am going to punch you in the face again if you don’t shut the hell up. Listen, he was just worried ok? Because you are friends, right? And you were acting weird, and there’s nothing more to it.”

The door to the restroom swung open then quickly shut itself again as the person behind it re-evaluated his need to pee in the face of an apparent lunatic arguing with himself. Rin ignored the interruption.

“Ok, you are going to go out there and you are going to act normal. He saved me when I was at my lowest point and you are not going to fuck up our friendship again over something stupid like this. Get it? Got it. Good. Great. Fine. Ok, Let’s do this.”

Having mentally kicked himself into submission, Rin was completely unprepared for Haru to grab him by the shoulders as he walked up to the booth where the others were sitting, look him in the eye and say, “Rin, come stay at my place over the term break.”

While he was mentally trying to reboot, the traitorous little voice inside his head grabbed control of his mouth and made it say, “Yeah sure I’d love to.”

He was rewarded with a little smile that was equal parts pleased and relieved and also the most beautiful thing Rin had ever seen in his life.

“Let’s go get your things.” Haru grabbed Rin’s arm and started dragging him towards the exit.

Rin’s eyes widened in alarm as he realized what he’d just agreed to, “Wait, what? Now? Haru, wait! Haru!”

"Do you know what the problem with you is?" Makoto asked as they watched Haru drag Rin off, “You’re a terrible liar.”

“Nope.” Sousuke popped a couple of fries into his mouth and smirked, “that’s the problem with you. I am a great liar.”

Makoto groaned and covered his face with his hand, “You know what I mean. This is definitely going to blow up in our faces.”

Sousuke shrugged and offered Makoto the basket of fries. “Maybe, but maybe it’ll solve all our problems instead. Either way, it’s going to be a fun ride.”

“It not going to solve your lying problem though,” Makoto chuckled and grabbed a fry. “You know, I never knew you had this side to you.”

Sousuke gave Makoto his best smile, “Hey, if they sort this out I won’t have to keep lying about Rin’s gang activities, and maybe you just need to get to know me better.”

Makoto smiled back, “Yeah, maybe I do.”


	2. Chapter 2

Rin had no idea what he was doing sitting in Haru’s living room with his backpack next to him. It was the exact opposite of what he had told himself he was going to do, but Haru had looked so ridiculously disappointed when he had tried to back out that he just hadn’t been able to do it.

He was midway through contemplating faking a mysterious fatal illness that would necessitate him flying halfway across the world when Haru padded back into the room carrying a tray of tea and… was that? 

“Haru, are you serving canned mackerel as tea snacks?”

“The art club bribed me with them when they needed some last minute help with an art exhibit they were setting up last week. They’re the best I’ve tasted yet, try some,” Haru offered him a pair of chopsticks and looked at him with the sparkling eyes of a mackerel enthusiast hopping to recruit a convert.

Sighing Rin took the chopsticks and picked up a piece of mackerel, looking at it dubiously. It glistened back at him. “So tell me about this art exhibit thing.”

Haru shrugged, “The art club was making a twelve foot tall sculpture of Iwatobi-Chan and they couldn’t get it done in time so they asked me to help out. Eat your mackerel.”

Rin raised a sceptical eyebrow at both the mackerel and the idea of Iwatobi-Chan as high art. “Are you telling me that there are other people besides you that think your school’s weird ass mascot is a work of art?” He popped the mackerel into his mouth. Actually, it wasn’t half bad.

Haru sniffed haughtily, “Just because you’ve got no taste…”

“Hey, I’ve got great taste. Good enough to know that your mascot is hella weird.”

“ Samezuka –chan,” Haru began…

Rin grinned, “I never said my school’s mascot wasn’t as weird as yours. In fact, that proves my point since you’re the one who goes all sparkly eyed every time you see it.”

Rin laughed as Haru huffed in indignation at the slight to the two school mascots. This was alright, he could do this. This was comfortable, just like usual, hanging out, arguing about nothing. He looked over at Haru; Haru was looking at him warmly, a bit of hair falling in front of his eyes, a tiny smile hanging off the corner of his lips. God, he wanted to reach out and brush the hair out of Haru’s eyes and taste that smile on those lips. Shit, he couldn’t do this. Shit, shit, shit.

Haru frowned, it had seemed like Rin had finally loosened up when he had suddenly tensed and gone silent. Was this what Sousuke had been talking about? Something that Rin could apparently share with Sousuke but not with him? For some reason, the thought sent a sharp pain through his chest. “Rin..,” he began tentatively at the same time as Rin said, “Haru...”

They both stopped, staring at each other. After a moment, Rin began again, “Haru, I… Listen maybe me staying here isn’t…”

Hearing those words Haru’s heart gave a strange lurch, Rin didn’t want to stay with him, he was leaving again. Whatever his problem was he didn’t think Haru could help him solve it. Haru hated this. If Rin would just talk to him, he was sure they would be able to solve it together, the same way Rin had helped him find his way in Australia. He searched him mind desperately for a way to get Rin to stay. “I’m adopted,” he blurted out.

“...the best... what?” Rin cut himself off abruptly. Haru looked incredibly unhappy, could it be that Rin had been so wrapped up in his own problems that he hadn’t noticed Haru’s?

“I…” Haru began again slowly, “…I’m adopted. I found out about it a couple of days ago when I was clearing out some drawers and found the papers.”

“You’re the only one I’ve told," he added quickly, better to keep this lie as simple as possible.

“What about Makoto?” 

Haru considered it, on the one hand Makoto was a terrible liar and would act incredibly awkward if he had to pretend he knew Haru was adopted, on the other hand he already had to pretend he didn’t know Rin was in a gang so he would be acting strange anyway, at least this would give him an excuse. “You and Makoto,” he amended. 

Rin nodded, feeling oddly disappointed, which was ridiculous, of course Haru had told Makoto, after all they were best friends and he was sure that, unlike Rin who had been so completely wrapped up in his own stupidly insignificant problems that he hadn’t even realized it, Makoto had noticed straight away that something was wrong with Haru. Makoto was a great friend, Haru’s best friend, unlike Rin who was a terrible, horrible, trash friend. How could he possibly help Haru through this when he was such a mess he hadn’t even noticed how Haru was feeling? He didn’t deserve Haru’s trust in him. 

“Haru…” he began, “…you know I’ll do whatever it takes to help you but I… if you need someone to stay with you maybe Mako...”

“No,” Haru said in alarm. Damn it, he should have never added Makoto to the list of people who knew he was fake adopted. Was Rin so reluctant to spend time with him and share his problems, problems that he was willing to tell Sousuke, that he was going to push him off on Makoto even with his fake adoption crisis? There was no way he’d let Rin get away with this.

He grabbed Rin’s hands across the table, “No he repeated more firmly, not Makoto it has to be you.”

Staring at Haru, Rin felt his resistance crumble. What did his inconsequential problems matter in the face of Haru’s real crisis, when Haru had for once reached out to him, not to Makoto or anyone else, not to help Rin with his problems but because he needed Rin’s help. “If you think I can help…"

Haru sighed with relief, good, Rin was going to stay instead of going off to his biker friends or Sousuke. Now he just needed to get Rin to confide in him. 

Later that night Makoto received a cryptic text message from Haru- ‘M adopted. Only you and Rin know.’ He groaned, apparently the ‘fun ride’ was starting.


	3. Chapter 3

Haru groaned at the persistent beeping of his alarm clock and reached out blindly to slam his hand against it until it turned itself off. He yawned and sat up slowly, staring blankly down at the empty futon next to his bed for a moment before registering its conspicuous lack of Rin. He looked around in alarm, visions of Rin sneaking off into the night running through his mind, but Rin’s backpack was still propped up against the wall next to his desk, gaping open and spilling its contents like entrails out of a burst stomach. He slumped in relief. Chances were Rin hadn’t run off to participate in some one-on-one battle and was probably just in the bathroom, changing for their morning run.

The night before, Haru had realized that the problem with trying to get Rin to open up to him was that he’d never actually had to do it before. Except for that time last year (and Haru didn’t think wrestling Rin to the ground and sitting on him would work this time), it had always been the other way around. He’d never needed or even wanted to actively get close to anyone before and he had no idea how to start.

He had remembered that Nagisa always said ‘when in doubt ask uncle google’ but he hadn’t seen his phone in three weeks and when he had finally found it, it had been well and truly dead. So he’d done the next best thing and surreptitiously called Rei from the hall phone while Rin was in the bath. He had managed to keep Rin’s gang activities secret through the judicious use of strategic silences and monosyllabic non-responses, also known as his normal conversation tactics.

The end result was that Rei had come away from that conversation with the impression that Haru had joined some sort of big brother program for troubled youth and was extremely keen to meet his new little brother when the boy was more settled. Haru sighed, well he’d cross that bridge when he came to it. In the meantime, he’d just have to make sure they didn’t run into Rei or Nagisa. On the up side, he had managed to scribble down a list of what Rei assured him were suitable activities to wean someone off of gang life.

He dug the list out from the side of the bed where he’d hidden it last night and looked at it dubiously. There seemed to be a lot of group activities on it, and Haru seriously doubted Rin would be up for counselling. One of the activities on the list, however, was exercise. Next to it Haru had scrawled swimming and underlined it twice. Haru wondered hopefully if they could just stick to that. After all, doing one thing well was probably better than doing many things badly, wasn’t it? He was pretty sure it was a famous saying, so it had to be true, it wouldn’t be famous if it wasn’t! On the other hand, as far as he knew, Rin was still swimming as much as usual and that hadn’t stopped him from becoming a special attack squad member in a gang. Haru sighed and resigned himself to trying at least some of the other activities on the list.

 

 

“Ok Matsuoka,” Rin glared at his reflection, “You got this. Haru’s in a really delicate emotional state right now and this is no time for your stupid crush. You are going to be understanding and considerate and you are going to go out there and be there for him. This is about him not you. Understand? Good? Great.” Nodding firmly to himself he walked out the door.

Rin walked back into the room just in time to see Haru hurriedly stuffing a piece of paper down the side of his bed. What was that? His adoption papers? A letter to his parents he hadn’t been able to send? Whatever it was, looking at it hadn’t done anything for Haru’s mood. Rin steeled his resolve even further. Time to be the friend Haru needed.

“Yo, Haru,” he called, plastering on his best grin. “Ready to go?”

 

 

Haru glared suspiciously at the group of hooligans loitering in the park with their dogs. Had their usual jogging route always been this littered with criminal elements? They must have jogged past half the delinquents in Iwatobi already. And he’d definitely seen a couple of bikers send subtle signals to Rin, and Rin had undeniably been signalling them back. So far, they hadn’t done anything overt but that was probably because Rin had told his underlings to be circumspect so that Haru wouldn’t suspect anything.

He was pretty sure that if Rin had joined a gang he wasn’t just some low level grunt. After all, Rin was strong and fast and had great reflexes. They’d probably jumped at the opportunity to make him one of their leaders. He was probably the leader of their flying column or something and they were probably all hanging around Rin in case a gang war broke out.

Haru had only the vaguest idea of what being in a gang entailed, but he had once watched a couple of episodes of some delinquent anime that Nagisa had brought to one of their team sleepovers and he had gotten the impression that gang wars happened at the drop of a hat. He narrowed his eyes grimly, this was worse than he’d thought. He needed to get Rin out of this gang as soon as possible.

 

 

Haru was acting strange. That is, stranger than usual, and this was talking about a guy who wouldn’t know normal if it walked up to him and poked him with a stick. It had been going on since their morning jog when he had glared at everyone whose paths they’d crossed including but not limited to other joggers, a group of people exercising their dogs in the park, a few early morning cyclists and motorcyclists, a bunch of actual gang members loitering outside a 24-hour convenience store (Rin had almost had a nervous breakdown trying to block their view of Haru and vice versa. Thank god they had seemed hungover and hadn’t been paying much attention) and to top it all off, he’d even glared at a little old lady that had been cleaning the sidewalk outside her house. He hadn’t even tried to jump into the path of her hose. It boggled the mind.

The only saving grace had been that Haru’s face was so deadpan that only someone who knew him well would have realized he was shooting glares like a supervillain’s malfunctioning death ray seconds before the secret lair came crashing down. Even so, Rin hadn’t been able to stop himself from smiling apologetically at some of the people that Haru had glared particularity hard at from sheer second-hand embarrassment.

The weirdness had only continued on from there. They had headed to the pool after their jog and it had been both glorious and agonizing in equal measure. He’d tried (with sadly limited success) to bury himself in the spirit of friendly competition to distract himself from some of the most lickable abs he’d ever seen, but Haru was throwing him off his game.

Haru kept trying to slide the topic of gangs and delinquents into their conversations. He seemed to think he was being subtle about it but Rin could clearly see what was going on. Haru had decided, in his third term of his third year of high school on less, to rebel.

Rin guessed he understood. After all, he might have been shaken too if, after 18 years, one of the very foundations of his life had been torn out by the roots. This had to be the source of all that glaring during their jog. Haru must have been practicing for his new life of crime.

Still, he wouldn’t be a very good friend if he let Haru mess up his life over something like this, so he had done his best to discourage any move into delinquency and divert the conversation to more wholesome topics as best he could.

It had been a struggle, especially since just the mere idea of delinquent Haru had started him fantasizing about Haru in a leather jacket riding around on a motorbike. It should have been completely stupid but was unfortunately ridiculously sexy instead, which was as good an indication as any for how far gone he was.

And now, just as he’d managed to clear his mind of sexy leather Haru by stuffing that particular video reel into a sealed box and locking that box behind a titanium door (only slightly distracted by the sight of water dripping from glossy black hair onto incredibly lickable collarbones), this...

 

 

Haru hauled himself out of the pool and shook his head, sending droplets of water flying. He snuck a glance at Rin from beneath his lashes and sighed. Rin was standing aimlessly in the water staring at him again with that strange look in his eyes that Haru couldn’t quite decipher.

For Haru, swimming with Rin had always been different from swimming with anyone else. When Haru swam solo, not as a part of a relay, every other swimmer was a distraction that he forgot about as soon as he hit the water, but when he swam with Rin, he always knew exactly where Rin was. It was as if they were magnets, drawn together and pushing and pulling each other by turns. Today however, was different. Rin had been, to put it mildly, distracted. And every time Haru had subtly tried to bring up the topic of gangs in the hopes that Rin would confide in him, he’d deflected and diverted.

Haru sighed again and resigned himself to the fact that just swimming together with Haru really wouldn’t be enough to make Rin give up his position as head of the special attack forces. “Rin, let’s do something else.”

Rin boosted himself up on the side of the pool and raised a cautious eyebrow. “Oh? Like what? You wanna do some long distance practice?”

Haru shook him head. “That not what I meant. I mean let’s do something other than swimming.”

“…OK,” Rin said carefully, like a snake wrangler trying to catch a particularly temperamental snake. “So… what do you want to do?”

“We can…” Haru searched his mind and came up blank, what had he written on that list again? He’d really been hoping that swimming together would be enough and hadn’t bothered to remember the rest. Damn it, he should have put the list in his pocket instead of stuffing it down the side of his bed. It was all Rin’s fault anyway, coming in suddenly and startling him like that. “…do something fun?” He finished weakly.

 

 

Rin sighed and ran a hand through his hair. Of course Haru wouldn’t know what to do, up until now the only things Haru had ever shown any interest in was water, swimming, mackerel and art. Oh, and lame mascots, couldn’t forget those. But then again, maybe this was a good thing. He’d been worried that Haru had been about to suggest they go looking for a fight. Maybe his attempts to divert Haru’s thoughts to others things had worked. If the worst that came of Haru finding out he was adopted was him trying to expand his horizons and try new things rather than turn delinquent for his last term of high school, then Rin would do his best to help him figure it out.

“Ok. Tell ya what, how about I look for something for us to do?” Rin offered. He jogged over to his bag and fished his phone out of the pocket of his track pants. “Lemme see what I can find.”

Rin scrolled quickly through the list of currently running events for the nearby areas looking for something that would interest Haru when something caught his eye as it flew past. He quickly scrolled back up, he hadn’t been wrong. He grinned, this would be the perfect thing to divert Haru’s attention from joining a gang. Iwatobi really had the weirdest events.

“Haru,” he called. “I think I found the perfect thing, how would you like to go to a festival?”

Haru grimaced, he didn’t hate festivals, and competing with Rin at the last festival they’d been to had been pretty fun, but he had always found crowds tiring and after a morning spent shielding Rin from gangsters he’d had his fill. But Rin looked pretty excited about it and he had been the one to suggest they do something else in the first place. Holding back a sigh, he nodded.

“Ok,” he said, trying to keep the ambivalence out of his voice.

Rin laughed. “How about you try to hold back on that excitement a little?” he teased. “I haven’t even told you what kind of festival it is yet.”


	4. Chapter 4

“I’m not doing that!” Haru stated mulishly.

“Why not?” 

“It’s against my principles.”

Rin rolled his eyes. “That would be a lot more impressive if your principles didn’t revolve around the proper way to cook fish.”

“It’s an insult to the mackerel!” Haru glowered at the horror in front of them like a particularly attractive gargoyle. 

“This coming from the guy who thinks mackerel and pineapple on pizza is a good combination.”

Haru scowled, “seafood pizza and pineapple on pizza are both classics.”

Rin snorted, “Yeah? Well leaving aside the fact that pineapple on pizza is an abomination, I’m pretty sure you’d get a hell of a lot of objections if you slapped a slab of mackerel on a pizza and called it seafood.”

“Mackerel is seafood!” Haru objected. “And since it’s the best seafood, I don’t see why you’d want to clutter up your pizza with an inferior product.” 

Rin couldn’t help but grin at Haru’s disgruntled expression. “If it’s the best then why don’t you want to enter this contest? There’s hardly any difference between pineapple and candy anyway.” 

Haru glared at Rin then switched his glare to the sign proclaiming the Mackerel Cooking Contest in honour of Iwatobi’s first ever Mackerel Fest and the display plate heaped high with the featured challenge ingredient- candy. He crossed his arms in front of his chest grumpily.

“Pineapple is an actual cooking ingredient that enhances the flavour of the mackerel. Candy is just trash.” 

Rin could admit in the privacy of his own mind that candy and mackerel sounded disgusting but he wasn’t going to let that stop him from teasing Haru about it.

“I never thought I’d live to see the day you turn down free mackerel.” Rin staggered dramatically and clutched his heart in shock. “Maybe I should stock up on canned food in case the apocalypse happens.”

Haru dismissed Rin’s antics as beneath his notice, his focus still on the sign.

“Oh come on Haru, I thought you said mackerel goes with everything.” Rin threw his arm around the other boy’s shoulders trying to hold back his laughter. Haru was just so damned cute when he was being righteously indignant. 

Haru took his eyes off the sign long enough to give Rin a look of such unqualified contempt and scorn that Rin was completely unable to keep it in and burst out laughing, clutching at Haru to keep himself upright. 

“Ok, ok,” Rin gasped when he could finally talk again. “Let’s go find something that won’t offend your delicate sensibilities.” 

Rin grabbed Haru by the arm and dragged him off when it looked like he was making a determined attempt to spontaneously develop pyrokinesis and set the sign on fire through the power of his eyes. 

 

 

Rin hummed as they strolled through the crowds. Rin had let go of Haru’s arm after he had hauled him away from the cooking booth, but Haru hadn’t moved away and their hands occasionally brushed together as they walked, sending a tingle up Rin’s arm every time they did. It was still pretty early, but the crowds had grown enough that it wasn’t unjustified to be walking so close together and he wasn’t going to think any more of it than that. He was having a surprisingly good time exploring the festival, trying out the mackerel themed games and tasting the various mackerel foodstuffs on offer. He could see that Haru was enjoying himself as well, baring the incident with the cooking contest, which he had only suggested to needle Haru in the first place.

He steered Haru towards a stall selling deep fried mackerel sticks and snagged a couple, passing one over to Haru as an apology. Haru took it with a nod of thanks, a tiny smile flickering across his face as he bit into it. His heart did a little flip at the sight but Rin felt remarkably calm. It was as if he’d finally found his balance on a precarious tightrope between love and friendship. It felt a bit like floating in the middle of a minty marshmallow cloud. As long as he didn’t think about it too much, he could just enjoy spending time with Haru. They meandered towards the next food stall where Haru bought them a couple of mackerel and pumpkin croquettes. Rin took his with a word of thanks and turned to survey the stalls. A booth caught his eye and he grinned, a festival eating tour was all well and good but as athletes they needed their exercise.

“Hey Haru,” he drawled, bumping his shoulder. “Remember how I totally kicked your ass in that crab-catching contest?”

Haru narrowed his eyes. “I remember how I kicked your ass at crab-catching hell if that’s what you mean.”

Rin snorted, “Yeah sure, in your dreams maybe. My crabs were a much better quality than the half dead things you caught.”

“If by better quality you mean catatonic from disease then sure. And my crabs were twice the size of yours anyway.”

“Excuse me?! My crabs were definitely livelier. I got pinched way more than you did! And my crabs were definitely bigger than the tiny things that you caught. Yours were so small I thought you’d grabbed a bunch of pickling crabs by mistake.” 

“I can’t believe you would boast about being bad at catching crabs Rin. The only reason I didn’t get pinched as much as you is pure crab catching skill. And your crabs were so small I thought you were trying to pass sea lice off as crabs.”

“Oh yeah?” 

“Yeah!”

“Only one way to settle this then,” Rin declared, giving Haru his best challenging look. “Mackerel grabbing purgatory?”

“Bring it!” Haru sent the look right back but his lips were quirked up in a smile.

Rin grinned and broke into a run towards the stall proclaiming Mackerel Grabbing Purgatory in giant yellow print. “Last one to change into their fundoshi is the loser you are!”

“Oi!” Haru let out a shout and dashed after him. 

 

 

“Hya!” Haru lunged and managed to grab another mackerel tossing it into the large basin behind him before it slipped out of his hands. That was the eighth one. He snuck a glance at Rin who had fallen over into the water in his latest attempt at a catch. Haru grinned, hah! That would teach him who the superior mackerel catcher was. He was just about to go after his next fish when he heard a distinctively terrifying voice. 

“Hey, hey Rei-chan, it’s too bad Haru-chan and Mako-chan couldn’t come to the festival huh?”

Haru froze, staring at the bouncing figure partially obscured by a stick of mackerel flavoured cotton candy three times the size of his head, and of course Rei was with him. 

“Makoto-sempai is busy looking after his younger siblings and Haruka-sempai is probably busy with his little brother too. I did message him though, so maybe he and his little brother are somewhere around here.” Rei peered around the crowds as if he expected Haru and his imaginary little brother to miraculously pop up in front of them. 

Haru ducked behind couple of enthusiastic mackerel catchers and cursed his tendency to ignore his phone. He made an immediate resolution to actually start carrying it with him from now on. He had never realized the importance of carrying your phone with you when you wanted to avoid people. 

“I still can’t believe Haru-chan decided to join a big bother program though.” Nagisa was saying.

Rei pushed his glasses up his nose smugly. “I don’t think it’s strange at all. Haruka-sempai is a very caring individual.” 

“Of course he is, everyone knows that.” Nagisa chipmunked his cheeks as he attempted to stuff the whole stick of cotton candy into his mouth at once. He paused, cocking his head to the side and pursing his lips thoughtfully, “but maybe not in the volunteer way...”

“Hey look, it’s the mackerel catching purgatory! Let’s go watch Rei-chan.” Nagisa had apparently stuffed enough candy in his mouth to see over the giant candy cloud because he had spotted the garish yellow sign over Haru’s head. He grabbed Rei’s arm and started making a beeline towards the booth.

The threat of imminent discovery broke Haru out of his paralysis. He looked around frantically, there was nowhere to hide. Luckily, Rin still hadn’t noticed their friends. He was busily grabbing at mackerel, chanting ‘sabasabasaba’. Thank god for his competitive spirit and one track mind. 

Could he risk letting them meet? No, even if Rei could be trusted not to blab there was Nagisa to worry about. One wrong word from either of them would set Rin’s guard up if it didn’t send him running back to his gang, and then he’d never be able to get Rin to confide in him. Crap, they were almost at the booth. Any second now they’d be seen. Even if they didn’t notice Haru there was no way they would miss Rin. In desperation, Haru lunged at Rin.

 

 

Rin had just grabbed his thirteenth fish when a body came crashing into him, slamming him down into the water. He grappled with the person for a second before realizing that it was Haru who had tackled him and who was now trying to force him down into the water through sheer body weight. 

“Haru what…?”

“Shhhh,” Haru hissed at him, “stay down.”

“Stop Haru!" He objected, trying to push the other boy off him before his body betrayed him by doing something stupid. “What’s going on?”

Haru stubbornly refused to budge. “...I… there… my mother.” he blurted.

“…What?”

“She… I…I think I saw my mother in the crowd and I don’t want her to see me.” 

Of course there was a perfectly good explanation for this. Haru was hiding from his mother because he wasn’t ready to confront her about the divorce yet. It certainly had nothing to do with him suddenly being overcome with lust for Rin. Rin ignored the tiny twinge of disappointment he felt, it only showed how far round the bend he’d gone if he had thought, for even a second, that that had been a reasonable explanation for Haru’s actions. 

“Ha...”

“Shut up and get under the water.” Haru underscored his command by pressing his forehead against Rin’s in what was essentially a slow motion head-butt, forcing Rin’s head underwater. Rin let himself be pushed down. He sure as hell wasn’t going to make Haru face his mother until he was ready if Haru was willing to go this far to avoid her.

The problem with going along with Haru’s stupid plan was that he was now lying on the bottom of the mackerel pool with Haru’s mostly naked body draped over him like an incredibly sexy blanket. Rin stared into Haru’s shimmering blue eyes. Haru hadn’t moved his head away and those eyes were filling his whole world. He could almost swear that he felt Haru’s lips just brushing his, they were so close together. He clenched his fists and forced his body ridged to stop his lips from closing that hair’s breadth of distance. Haru abruptly turned his head and dropped his chin onto Rin’s shoulder, pressing their bodies even closer together. 

Rin could feel every inch of Haru’s body plastered against his, the warmth of Haru’s body seeping into his and Haru’s lips lightly brushing Rin’s neck. It was glorious and amazing and wonderful and also very, very bad. Rin shivered and Haru shifted slightly in response rubbing his thigh lightly across Rin’s crotch. 

Shit! Fuck! Shit! Fuck! Shit! Fuck! Crap! Rin exploded out of the water, shoving Haru off him and shooting backwards across the pool. He slammed into the side of the pool sending a wave of water and a couple of fish over the plastic lip. He looked at Haru hoping desperately that Haru hadn’t noticed his reaction and froze. Haru was staring at him wide-eyed, the expression of hurt and confusion on his face plain to see. 

Rin couldn’t believe what a pathetic loser he was. Haru had just been trying to hide from his mom and yet here Rin was acting like a disgusting predatory asshole, taking advantage of his friend in his time of need. And what was worse, because of his inability to control himself, he had hurt Haru. He made himself sick. Wait… Haru’s mom…  


“Haru,” he hissed, “what about your mom?”

Haru blinked slowly. His mom? What was Rin talking about? Oh right, Nagisa and Rei. He looked around listlessly, for some reason he couldn’t seem to bring himself to care if they were discovered right now. It didn’t seem like they were in the crowd around the booth anyway. He was about to turn away when he spotted them in front of a stall selling limited edition Iwatobi-chan strawberry and mackerel cream buns, apparently they’d been side-tracked. For a second he thought he saw Nagisa look right at him and wink, but then the boy turned back to Rei and started dragging him off in the opposite direction. He really couldn’t be bothered to wonder about it right now.

He turned back to Rin who was looking at him with a completely shuttered expression. "I guess I was mistaken," he said tonelessly. 

For a moment Haru had forgotten that Rin was the vice-head of a gang and it had been something like normal. Maybe it was that sense of relief that had made everything seemed just a bit brighter, had made Haru feel a little like he was floating all that evening and set his lips tingling when they had accidentally brushed Rin’s under the water. But Rin had pull away and closed himself off again. Haru felt like a soundtrack he hadn’t even known was playing had suddenly cut out leaving everything in silence. 

For the rest of the evening Rin held himself at arms-length. He was nice about it though, he responded when Haru spoke to him, he bought Haru mackerel snacks and he was frankly so solicitous that Haru might have suspected that he had been replaced with a pod person. But anytime Haru tried to bring the topic of conversation back to Rin he’d deflect, and he’d stopped looking at Haru. He’d look over Haru’s shoulder or in his general vicinity or he’d spin around and look at the crowds but he refused to look him in the face. It hurt, and then suddenly, as Rin’s eyes passed over Haru again, like he wasn’t even there, Haru was furious, as angry as he’d ever been. Maybe a fight really was the best way to deal with this after all…


	5. Chapter 5

Rin was in love with Haru, he was absolutely was, but at the moment that wasn’t holding back the rising urge to wring his scrawny neck. After yesterday, he’d been determined to hold himself in check but he was being severely tested. They had been walking around the town for a good four hours now on a quest to find the new limited edition Lucky-kun keychain. He didn’t begrudge Haru that, after all he knew that sometimes you had to put in the effort to get the thing you wanted. No, the problem was that they had found the keychain, in fact they had found dozens of them at almost every single store they had visited but Haru had rejected each and every one of the, to Rin’s untrained eye, completely identical keychains for imperfections that apparently only Haru could see. 

Calm down Matsuoka, he’s probably just projecting the rejection he’s feeling from his parents onto the keychains or something. You just gotta be understanding about it. He gritted his teeth and forced a smile that came out as more of a grimace as Haru rejected yet another set of identical keychains and set off for the next store. 

Haru shot a glance at Rin out of the corner of his eye as he examined the Lucy-kun keychains for imagined flaws. Rin looked like he was reaching the end of his rope. Thank god for that. Haru was tired of walking around looking at Lucky-kun keychains, cute as they were. Hopefully, Rin would explode soon and they could have a nice argument, get everything out in the open, and go back to normal. He was honestly looking forward to the screaming match. Maybe just one more push? Haru rejected this batch of keychains too and sighed as Rin gave him what, Rin seemed to think, passed for a smile. Oh well, on to the next store. Surely it couldn’t be long now. 

 

 

Haru had apparently severely underestimated Rin’s tolerance for putting up with bullshit. They had been looking for the perfect Lucky-kun for five hours now and Rin still hadn’t cracked. What the hell? Where had all this restraint and patience been the last time they’d debated the nutritional qualities of mackerel versus beef. At this point, the only thing stopping Haru from abandoning this charade and making a beeline for the nearest pool was the knowledge that he had started this and he’d be damned if he lost to a Rin who didn’t even know what game they were playing. He clenched his jaw and marched on, he’d visit every bloody store in this town if he had to. 

Rin ground his teeth and wondered if clenching his jaw too hard for too long could permanently fuse it together, he suspected he would find out. At around the four hour mark Haru had started asking him his opinion of the various identical Lucky-kun keychains, opinions which he had then summarily dismissed out of hand. 

Haru turned to Rin holding another identical keychain, “what do you think about this one?” he asked. What did Rin think? What did Rin think? Rin thought it looked exactly the same as the first keychain Haru had looked at five freaking hours ago. “It looks fine,” he managed through gritted teeth. 

Haru frowned and held it up to the light, examining it. “No,” he sighed, “The paint on the left wingtip looks a bit messy.” He put it back on the hook and started walking out of the shop. Rin eyed the back of Haru’s head, one punch, just one punch and he’d drop like a rock… 

At this point, the only thing stopping Rin was the feeling that if he did explode at Haru he’d somehow be losing and he’d be damned if he did after coming this far.

Haru was dying, literally dying, ok figuratively, but still dying. He didn’t like pointless conversation at the best of times but this was ten times worse because he was the one doing the talking. He’d started asking Rin his opinion in an attempt to piss him off enough to get him to blow up but it had backfired badly. Haru was the one who was taking the hit. Damn Rin, the chatty bastard. Why wasn’t Rin blowing up at him so they could end this hellish charade and start talking normally again? He could see that Rin was obviously annoyed and yet he refused, what the hell was it going to take? 

 

 

“So…” Sousuke drawled, “What do you think they’re doing out there?”

Makoto sighed and covered his eyes with his hand, “I don’t know and I’m not sure that I want to.” 

They’d been sitting in the café for a couple of hours now ostensibly to work out the joint swimming schedule for Samezuka and Iwatobi, and Haru and Rin had walked past their café at least five times since they’d sat down, looking progressively more pissed each time they’d passed by.

“They look pissed,” Sousuke observed in what Makoto considered to be much too careless a tone considering that it was probably all his fault.

Makoto removed the hand from in front of his eyes so he could glare at Sousuke, “This is probably all your fault anyway. Look at what Haru sent me the other night,” he said, shoving his phone at Sousuke accusingly.

Sousuke took the phone, “Haru’s adopted?” he asked raising an eyebrow. “What’s that got to do with me?”

“Of course he’s not,” Makoto snapped. “He probably only told Rin that because of your stupid lie in the first place.”

Sousuke chose to ignore his accusation in favour of gazing out the window. “You think we should do something about that?” he asked lazily, nodding at the pair outside. “They look like they’re about to strangle each other.” 

“Oh my god,” Makoto jumped to his feet, they really did look like they were about to murder each other. “Come on, we have to stop them.”

“And not a word about Haru’s adoption status,” he warned over his shoulder as he practically ran out the door.

“Sure thing boss,” Sousuke drawled, firing off a lazy saluting and following.

 

 

Rin glared at Haru who was scowling back at him just as fiercely. The tension was so thick you could have used it to soundproof rooms. What the fuck did Haru have to be angry about? Rin wondered in the tiny part of his mind that was still grimly hanging on to his sanity by the tips of its fingernails. Rin himself was wound up to the point of snapping. If Haru said one word, just one more word about going into yet another bloody souvenir shop… 

It was at this inopportune moment that Makoto appeared to try and defuse the situation, “Umm, hey guys…” 

Rin spun around and pinned Makoto to the spot with a glare so intense that Makoto was slightly surprised to find himself not bursting into flames. “What?!” he shouted, “What the fuck do you want Makoto?”

Haru immediately saw red. How dare Rin scream at Makoto instead of him when he’d been trying for this exact reaction for six fucking hours. “Don’t shout at Makoto!” he yelled, grabbing Rin by the shoulder to force Rin’s attention back on him.

“I’ll shout at whoever I damn well please!” Rin snarled, fisting his hands into the front of Haru’s shirt and hauling him up to his face. It very slightly lessened Rin’s burning need to punch him. 

“Then why the fuck aren’t you screaming at me? Do you enjoy running around for hours looking at stupid keychains you freaking masochist?” Haru twisted both his fists into Rin’s collar and attempted to shake his teeth out of his head.

Rin planted his feet and hauled Haru closer, using his elbows to cut off Haru’s leverage. “I was trying to be considerate of your bloody adoption trauma you bloody idiot.”

“That was a lie you dumbass! The only trauma I have is the fact that you’ll talk to anyone but me about the fact that you’re the head of a gang. You’ve made it obvious I’m not as close to you as Yamazaki is but I thought we were friends. Why can’t you trust me?”

“What the hell are you talking about? What gang? And you have no idea how close to me you are!”

“If you don’t have gang problems then why the fuck do you have a bruise on your cheek? Why won’t you fucking talk to me?”

“Because I’m a fucking idiot and I’m in love with you. That’s why!” Rin roared. 

“You…what?” Haru stared at Rin wide-eyed. He loosened his grip and took a startled step back.

Rin stared back in horror as his brain finally caught up with his mouth. 

“I…I...” Rin wrenched out of Haru’s grip and took off running.

Haru stood, gaping at Rin’s fast retreating back unsure of what to do. 

“Welllll,” Sousuke drawled, “that could probably have gone slightly better.”

Makoto shot him a scowl from under his brows. “You think?” he asked, exasperated.

Haru stared at his two friends blankly. “What... what just happened?” 

Sousuke shrugged. “Looks to me like Rin just confessed to you.”

“Rin’s… in... love with me?”

“Haru…” Makoto began. 

“No.” Sousuke put out a hand to stop Makoto from continuing. “Rin’s been a total idiot about the whole thing and he should have told you straight out but now you know, so what are you going to do about it?”

“…Do about it?” Haru looked up at Sousuke who was looking at him sharply in contrast to his casual tone. 

“Well?” Sousuke raised a sardonic eyebrow. “Do you feel the same way? If you don’t, I’d appreciate you letting me know ASAP so I can start picking up the pieces of my best friend’s heart after it gets crushed by the guy he’s been in love with for the last six years.”

“Hey,” Makoto put a warning hand on his arm.

Sousuke sighed and ran a hand through his hair, “Yeah sorry, that was out of line. Sometimes things are only stupid-funny until they turn stupid-stupid.”

“Haru,” Makoto said, “I know that this is a lot to take in but just think about what Rin said alright? And then, when you’re ready, whatever response you give him, I’ll be behind you.”

Haru nodded slowly, feeling ridiculously grateful for his best friend. He turned away and began to walk. He needed to think.


	6. Chapter 6

Haru floated on his back staring up at the night sky, the water surrounded him but he could barely feel its comforting presence. Rin was in love with him. The thought expanded in his head like an airbag after a high-speed crash… Rin was in love with him!

He remembered the first time he’d seen Rin, at that swimming competition at Iwatobi Swim Club, all those years ago, a skinny little kid with sharp red eyes, the first person who’d actually pushed him, who’d made him question his closeness to the water, who’d, for the first time ever, made him want to not just feel the water but win. He remembered the first time he’d actually met Rin, feeling more than hearing the splash in the water as someone had jumped in and challenged him just as he made his turn for the second lap, again feeling that competitive drive that he’d never felt before, and being completely unsurprised when they’d hit the wall all almost at the same time and he’d found out it was the same red-eyed boy. It had seemed almost like fate. 

Rin had blown into his life like a sudden summer storm, buffeting him with chaotic winds of change and upending his tidy life, then leaving just as quickly. At the time, he’d told himself that he was glad that the annoying red-head was gone and he could get back to his normal life, but now, he could admit to himself how hurt he had been when Rin had left for Australia. It had been a hurt that new friends and a new team had only been partially able to soothe.

When he’d received Rin’s letter from Sousuke, things had seemed a bit brighter, he’d felt lighter knowing that somewhere out there Rin was thinking of him as much as he was thinking of Rin.  He’d read and reread that letter over and over until the day he’d finally met Rin again and his world had come crashing down around his ears.

He remembered how numb he’d felt for those next five years, just waiting and waiting to become normal, so that Rin would never have to look at him again and think that he was inferior. But then, Rin had come crashing back into his life. This time all anger and jagged edges. He’d been a completely different person from the boy that Haru had once known but even so, his presence, the knowledge that Rin was _here_ had set something thawing in him that he hadn’t even realized was frozen. Haru smiled a little at the thought, to slightly mangle Rin’s words, he had made his cold spirit hot.   

It had made him uncharacteristically motivated, this feeling that Haru hadn’t bothered to identify at the time, enough to get him to put in effort, in his own way, to get the swimming club up and running. Enough to make him care about times and training so that he could swim with Rin again.  

But then Rin had said they’d never swim together again. It had seemed as though he’d fallen down a dark hole, as if the world had suddenly been leached of colour and repainted in shades of grey and black.  His friends had pulled him out if it, reminded him that even if Rin rejected him it wasn’t the end, that he could still reach out to him, for which he was eternally grateful.  They had been a lifeline to which he had been able to cling.

It had been painful, but not as much as watching Rin break down again. When Rin had said he’d never swim again, for a moment, it had felt as though the one who would never swim again had been him, because swimming without Rin would have been meaningless. He had been desperate to put Rin back together again, to make Rin understand what he was swimming for, _who_ he was swimming for.

He remembered how Rin had helped him when he had been floundering, when it had seemed like everyone was moving forward, moving on with their lives, except for him.  Rin had brought him to Australia despite his reluctance and over his protests, and shared his dream with Haru. He had shown him the world and helped Haru find his own dream.

How fitting then that in the end, the dream he had found, standing on that starting block next to Rin in the Olympic aquatic centre, had been to swim together with Rin, to find out how big the world was and see how far they could go, because without Rin he would never have even realized his own competitive drive, the pleasure he got from pushing himself against someone who could feel the water as well as him, the satisfaction of being the first to slam his hand against the wall. It was always Rin that made him change, that completely destroyed his inertia, that dragged him forward kicking and screaming…

What he felt for Rin, annoyance, rivalry, gratefulness, affection… love, but was it just the love he felt for a friend? The same love he felt for Makoto and Nagisa and Rei?

If it wasn’t, then what was it? The feeling that sent a painful twinge through his chest when he thought Rin was closer to someone else, that made everything seem just a bit brighter when Rin was around, that let Haru know exactly where Rin was every time they were in the water together, and sometimes even when they weren’t. What was that feeling? He reached out for it…   

There was a splash at the far end of the pool and he felt the water ripple as someone swam up next to him.

“Hey.”

“…Hey.”

“So, I’m in love with you. I just wanted to let you know without screaming it into your face.”

Haru remained silent floating in the water next to Rin, gathering his thoughts.

“To be honest, I’ve probably been in love with you since the first time I saw you swim six years ago… and I know that you probably don’t feel the same way...”

“Rin…”

“…and I probably just fucked up our friendship…”

“Rin…”

“…but I just wanted to let you know and then I’ll leave…”

“Rin, I’m in love with you too.”

“…you alone… what?”

“I’m in love with you too. I’ve probably been in love with you since you decided that stalking was a legitimate way to recruit people for a relay team,” Haru paused, “I just… I guess, I never really thought about it until you screamed it into my face.”

“Hruga,” Rin croaked.

Haru frowned, that really hadn’t been the reaction he’d been expecting. Before he could do more than wonder if Rin was alright, Rin threw himself at Haru with the violence of a savvy housewife fighting her way to the last carton of eggs at a special timed sale. They went under the water in a flurry of tangled limbs and bubbles.

The feeling of Rin’s body against his was so hot it burned. Haru forgot himself, forgot the water and forgot the first thing he’d ever learned and gasped, promptly swallowing a mouthful of water in the process. There was a moment of confusion, and then he was breaking the surface of the water again supported by Rin.

“Shit, fuck, Haru I’m sorry are you ok?” Rin blabbed trying to untangle himself from Haru. Haru for his part immediately clamped his arms around Rin thwarting the attempt even as he coughed up a mixture of pool water, saliva and a spare lung all over Rin’s shoulder and down his back.

“Haru…” Rin tried again tentatively to move away but was stymied by obstinately unmoving arms. He laughed ruefully. “You really know how to get what you want huh.”

He patted Haru on the back gently his other arm looped around Haru’s waist. Haru expelled his sixth lung over Rin’s back then muttered into Rin’s neck, “What’s the point of holding back when you know what you want.” He felt Rin flush at his words, the skin beneath his lips heating up.

“It’s so easy for you to just go after what you want.” Rin sighed into Haru’s hair. “Sometimes I wish I could be more like you,” he confessed.

“What are you talking about?” Haru asked the back of Rin’s ear. “You switched schools to get me on your relay team, you moved to Australia to chase your dream. You’re going back there again in a couple of months. If anything I’m jealous of you. You’re the one who always knows what he wants and goes after it. Sometimes I wish I could be more like you.”

“Haru, even if I know what I want sometimes it scares the crap out of me thinking I could fail. I just put on a confident façade and hope if I act it enough it’ll become real. And sometimes I want it so much that it paralyzes me. I mean I’ve been in love with you for years and I was always too scared to make a move. I thought that if I did, I’d lose what we already had so I tried to bury it. If you were in my place…”

“If I was in your place,” Haru said dryly, “I wouldn’t even have realized I was in love with you and we wouldn’t be having this conversation right now.”

“Maybe I’m not afraid to go after what I want, but a lot of the time I don’t even realize that I want something in the first place. I just stay where I am because it’s easy and comfortable and because I don’t want to change, and I never even know that there’s something else out there. Except I do, because I feel like something’s missing, like I’m trapped- stagnating, then I get frustrated and annoyed and shut down because it’s easier that way.”

Rin laughed ruefully and finally pulled back to look at Haru. Haru let him. “God Haru, we’re a real pair of idiots aren’t we?”

Haru smiled at him then pressed back up against Rin, “I guess we are,” he murmured, lips caressing the sensitive skin of Rin’s neck. 

Rin groaned, the feeling of Haru against him was doing all sorts of unfortunate things to his body. He tried to pull away again to put a little distance between them. Haru couldn’t possibly know what he was doing to him. Haru was…. Haru was… nibbling on his ear…

 “Haru, are you trying to seduce me?” Rin asked incredulously.

Haru snorted, “I thought I was being pretty obvious about it but if you need me to spell it out for you….”

Rin kissed him to shut him up and because no, he didn’t need it spelled out for him, he might have been an idiot but he wasn’t quite that stupid. It was electrifying, better than anything he’d ever dreamed. Haru tasted cool and clear and sweet, and also faintly of mackerel. Rin decided that he could absolutely live with that. Then Haru sucked on his bottom lip and ran his hands down his back, and he had so many other better things to think about.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really want to apologise for the long delay. I’ve been sitting on these last two parts for ages because I wanted to re-watch a couple of episodes of Free to ensure canon compliance. But in the end, I never got around to it… so, sorry for the delay but really more for being a procrastinating trash bag. I shall, as my brother-in-law says, make my reflection.


	7. Chapter 7

Rin lay on his back staring up at the stars, legs dangling off the edge of the pool. He was sufficiently warm that the cold tiles and cool night breeze felt good against his heated skin.  He turned his head slightly so he could see Haru lying next to him, hand intertwined with his own. _“_ So, what was all that Lucky-kun crap about? We didn’t really need to spend seven hours looking for your stupid perfect key-chain did we?”

Haru flushed and averted his eyes in embarrassment. “I was trying to get into a fight he mumbled.”    

Rin chuckled, “Yeah I figured,” he stroked his thumb across the back of Haru’s hand. “The question is why? And while we’re on the subject of weird ass shit, why did you pretend you were adopted and think that I was in a gang?”

Haru could feel that tips of his ears heating up, he couldn’t bring himself to meet Rin’s eyes. Now that Rin was saying it out loud it seemed pretty stupid. “Sousuke said…” he began.

Rin groaned and thumped his head against the ground. “That interfering bastard! I am going to murder him the next time I see him… and maybe Makoto too,” he added, remembering that they’d seemed suspiciously close lately. “You don’t mind do you?” He asked Haru for formality’s sake. He was pretty sure Haru would be fine with it, considering.

“I’ll make an exception this time,” Haru said dryly, realizing that Makoto had definitely been in on it. “I might even help.” He paused. “How did you know where to find me?”

“Please, I don’t have to be in love with you to know that you automatically gravitate to the nearest body of water whenever, whatever. All I had to do was figure out what the nearest pool that you had access to was, and lo and behold here you are.”

Haru tried to stop the corner of his mouth from twitching up. “You should be glad I’m so predictable or else you’d never have found me to declare your undying love.”

“Hah!” Rin said, trying to keep away the smile that was threatening to appear on his lips. “You should be thanking me on your knees that I declared my undying love since you’re apparently too dense to even realize you’ve been in love with a guy for the last six years. And another thing, I never stalked you. That was just active recruitment.”

“Right, switching schools to chase after some kid you saw one time at a swimming competition is totally normal.” 

“Hey, at least I don’t try to strip and jump into every body of water that I see.”

“At least I don’t cry every time I watch Bambi.”

“At least I’m capable of eating something other than mackerel five times a day.”

“At least your cat likes me.”

“That’s because you always smell like mackerel! And Steve likes me!”

Haru snorted, “Yeah sure, he’s just playing hard to get.”

Rin chuckled. “Well, at least I don’t go around breaking into my school’s pool every time I have some kinda crisis.

“Really?” Haru quirked an eyebrow, “Then what are you doing here?”

“I am here,” Rin said with dignity, “for your stupid ass, so that doesn’t count.”

“Also,” he grinned, “this isn’t my school."

Haru looked at Rin, fire kindling in his eyes, and smirked. “At least,” he said slowly, “I’m not delusional about my criminal activities, and I’m not delusional when I say I can beat you in the pool anytime, anywhere.”

“Oh, them’s fighting words!” Rin clambered to his feet and offered his hand to Haru grinning, “100 meter free?”

Haru grabbed the proffered hand, his smile lighting up his face. “On the count of three…”

 

 

 “So, what do you think is going to happen now?”

Sousuke shrugged, “Either they figure it out, or tomorrow I drag Rin out from whatever rock he’s hiding under and you grab Haru and we force them to sort it out.”

Makoto raised a skeptical eyebrow, “That’s pretty straightforward of you. What happened to all that scheming you were having so much fun with?”

“I got too old for that shit.”

Makoto pursed his lips and put a hand to his chin in mock consideration, “Hmmm, yes I can see how much you’ve aged in the last three days.”

Sousuke grinned, “I’ve definitely aged enough to know when there’s nothing I can do about a situation. So I might as well not worry about it and get back to my date.”

“Oh?” Makoto raised his eyebrows in surprise, “You were on a date? And here I thought we were working on the joint practice schedule for our swim teams.”  

Sousuke snorted, “Please, I’m not even the captain of Samezuka.”

Makoto tutted, shaking his head sadly, “Didn’t you say you were helping to take the load off your poor unfortunate friend who’d fallen into the clutches of a terrible gang when you invited me out?”

Sousuke laughed, “Didn’t you say that I’m a terrible liar?” he countered. He cocked an eyebrow, “You’re being awfully sassy for someone who just watched his best friend walk away all confused.”

Makoto shrugged, “I guess I got too old for that shit too. Besides they’ve both been in love with each other since forever. They’ll work it out.” He smiled at Sousuke, “If I didn’t believe that, I’d never have gone along with your stupid plan in the first place.”

“And here I thought it was because of my charming personality.”

Makoto laughed, “Well I’ve always had a weakness for guys who are willing to admit their plan is stupid. Come on, let’s get back to the café before they think we did a dine-and-dash and call the police. You can try charming me with that personality of yours,” he called over his shoulder, heading back to the cafe.

Sousuke grinned at the retreating back, “It would be my pleasure.”  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I never intended for SouMako to happen since I don’t believe in pairing the spares. But then, they started getting all flirty with each other and pretty much forced my hand… and that’s my excuse for pairing the spares. I’m sorry for everything.


End file.
